Captain Turpin Smith
(1751-1835)
The Gaspee
Days
Committee at www.gaspee.COM
is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community
events
in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade
each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the 1772
burning of
the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island
patriots as America's 'First Blow for Freedom' TM.
Our
historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG
, has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further
information
on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning
of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further
questions
to webmaster@gaspee.org.

The names of the most conspicuous
actors
are
as follows, viz: Mr. John Brown, Captains Abraham Whipple, John B.
Hopkins,
Benjamin Dunn, and five others, whose names I have forgotten, and John
Mawney, Benjamin Page, Joseph Bucklin, and Turpin Smith, my
youthful
companions, all of whom are dead, I believe, every man of the party,
excepting
myself, and my age is eighty-six years this 29th day of August,
eighteen
hundred and thirty-nine.

For many years
after
the Revolution four
survivors
of the 'Gaspee' affair were conspicuous figures on all patriotic
occasions
in Providence, invariably appearing in Fourth of July parades. These
four
men were Turpin Smith, Ephraim Bowen, Benjamin Page, and John
Mawney.

From: Williams, Catherine, Biography
of Revolutionary Heroes: Containing the Life of Brigadier Gen. William
Barton and also of Captain Stephen Olney. Providence, Published
by the author, 1839, pp 19-24. The names
of those brave and resolute citizens, as far as they have come to our
knowledge, are as follows:

The name of Turpin Smith, so far as we know, is unique to
himself
and his sons, one of which died at 6 months age, and the other born in
1788 that we know nothing further about. Turpin must
have
been
his real and legal first name, for he used it on his application in
1833 for a pension based on his service in the Revolutionary
War..
Following convention at the time, Turpin was possibly his mother's
maiden
name.

Right: 1826
parade banner depicting the burning of the Gaspee. Surrounding the
picture are the names of the four then 'surviving captors' who
participated in the
raid who were being celebrated: B. Page, E. Bowen, T.
Smith, and J. Mawney. Courtesy of RI Historical Society
RHiX17317. Click image to
enlarge.

He is buried at the Swan Point Cemetery in Providence. He
would've
been 21 years old at the time of his Gaspee
shenanigans.

USGenWeb search show that
during
the
1790 Federal census of Rhode Island for Providence, there was:

Smith, Turpin
1-2-3-*-*

That is: himself, 2 males less than 16 years old, 3 females, no other
freepersons,
and no slaves. He also shows up in the 1810, 1820, and 1830 Federal
censi
in Providence, RI

Ships and Shipmasters of Old Providence, Providence
Institution
for Savings, 1920 p12 claims Turpin Smith was a "well known seafaring
man." NEGHS
records
show that Turpin Smith was granted a pension in 1831 of $90, having
been a 'Master's Mate' in the Navy. This is according to Vital Record of Rhode
Island, 1636-1850, by James N. Arnold-- "List of Names on the Pension Roll of 1835".On
the other hand, we can find no such record in the Revolutionary War
pension files at HeritageQuest, at least not under the name Turpin
Smith. Luckily we were able to pay $37 to the US National
Archives who dutifully (and promptly) sent along the pension
application papers of our Turpin Smith:

His pension papers (#S.21984) state that he had no surviving
wife or
children at the time he died in 1835. His will was solely executed by a
Thomas Burgess of Providence. He claimed his birthday as
4April1751. He states that "he
was one of those who took and burnt the British tender Gaspee in
Narragansett Bay in June 1772." Turpin Smith served a
total for one year between 1779 and 1780, first as a Master's Mate
beginning in June 1779 for seven months aboard the Rhode Island Navy
frigate [probably the sloop-ed] Providence,
Commodore Abraham Whipple.
While aboard the Providence,
the ship and two others met up with a British transport fleet and took
10 prizes, of which 8 were sailed into Boston. He then served about
five months aboard the Massachusetts Navy ship Protector,
20 guns, Captain John Foster Williams. He was engaged in action
on
the Newfoundland Banks in both ships, probably to disrupt British and
Canadian fishing expeditions in that area. The Protector met up in that vicinity
with a British privateer commanded by an Admiral Duff, which blew up
when her magazine exploded. In amended pension application Smith
claimed that Master's Mate was a rank equivalent to the more modern
term of "Sailing Master" and should be accorded the rank equivalent of
a Lieutenant in the Navy. He was apparently illiterate as he
signed his pension applications with an x mark. He pension applications
were attested to by Stephen Wardwell, Deacon, and Henry P. Franklin,
merchant, of Providence in 1832, and later by Samuel Young and Thomas
Clarke who were both clergymen from Providence in August 1833. Turpin
Smith was noted to be both blind and hard of hearing at the time of his
application in 1832.

The NEGHS database portal to Early American Newspapers gives us
several ancedotes. In 1791 Turpin Smith was in command of a brig
out of Providence that sank near Hispanola, all crew were saved. In
1792 he advertised for sale a dwelling house and store on Union Street
in the West End. In May 1794 he had sailed into Providence from
Bermuda. In January 1799 he commanded the brig Sally out of Providence.
Between 1803 and 1813 he advertised for sale at his store next to Dr.
Benjamin's near the west end of the Great Bridge, an assortment of
crockery, glassware, and cheeses. According to the Providence Phenix of 14June1806 a
new street leading northward from Weybosset Street and between the
houses of Captain Turpin Smith and Captain Bowler was to be called
Union Street (this article is a great source of early street names in
Providence). In 1816 he began advertising a house and apartments for
lease at Union and Broad Streets on the West Side. In 1822 Turpin
Smith's crockery business had ceased and the location became the site
of a shoe store. Finally, his short obituary was published
22Aug1835 in the Newport Mercury
and probably other newspapers.

The Smith Distillery is of high interest, since we know many of those
involved in the raid on the Gaspee were members of families involved in
the Triangular Trade of slaves for molasses for rum for slaves.

The name Smith also pops up in a search elsewhere on the Gaspee Virtual
Archives among other Gaspee raiders. Thomas
Swan apparently married a Smith at some point in order to be
considered the uncle of Bishop Smith. Benjamin
Page's mother was Alice Smith. John Brown
married his wife, Sarah Smith, in 1759. Also, we note that Gov. Stephen Hopkins
married his second
wife, Ann Smith, in 1755, and a Benjamin
Smith
owned a shipyard in Pawtuxet Village during the times.

But it turns out the the brother of Gaspee raid leader John Brown's
wife Sarah is Job Smith (b: 24 SEP 1736), owner of the distillery.

Note that it was common at the time to recycle names of children that
had died in infancy. As noted above in Turpin Smith's pension
application of 1832, all of his family had deceased by that time.
Nothing is found on Ruth Rhodes or Samuel Rhodes in the LDS site.

If we believe in guilt by association, then James
Sabin, who owned the Sabin Tavern where the Gaspee raiders met to
plot
the details of the attack on the Gaspee in June 1772, married his
second
wife in August 1772 by the name of Anna Bicknell (1754), whose mother
was
named Martha Turpin (1718-1785), daughter of William TURPIN
(1690-1743/1744)
and Catharine JENCKES (1694). William Turpin was apparently a wealthy
merchant
in the Attleboro-Providence area. William and Catharine Turpin had ten
kids, of which, seven were female.

We don't know who the other four daughters married, if they did. It is
highly likely that the Turpin Smith we seek is the offspring of
Elizabeth
Turpin (1715) and this _____ Smith. Since Elizabeth was born in 1715 in
Providence, we can assume she married Smith sometime around 1735, and
would've
been available to have the offspring of Turpin Smith c1750. Birth and
death
records show that there were two children born with unlisted first
names
of a William Smith and Elizabeth Smith on 12 Aug 1755 and 02 Nov 1756,
one of which died on 20 Nov 1759. 12 Aug 1755 as a birthdate
would
make Turpin Smith 16 years old at the time of the Gaspee attack; young,
but within the range of what Ephraim Bowen described as "my youthful
companions".

Whipple.org does list
several
William Smiths born in Providence during the first half of the 18th
Century.
There are also 4 or 5 Elizabeth Smiths listed with no or incomplete
dates in the RI
Historical Cemeteries Database. Unfortunately, there are many
inconsistencies in the genealogical trees, so we have little to do
until the Smiths and Turpins work out their trees with some accuracy
before proceeding further.

A search of RIGenWeb
does give us a William Smith's name, amongst others that petitioned the
Rhode Island assembly for the establishment of a school in Providence
in 1770, to wit: